Poultry-coop.



W. L. BECK & L. W. TILFORD.

POULTRY COOP.

APPLICATION F|LED JAN. 19, 9'5- 1 1 89,040 Patented June 27, 1916.

UNITED STATES PATENT onFioE.

WILLIAM L. BECK AND LAWRENCE W. TIL-FORD, 0F KEVIL, KENTUCKY.

POULTRY-COOP.

Specification of LettersIatent. Patented J 11116 2'7, 1916.

Application filed January 19, 1915. Serial No. 3,158.

To all whom it may concern:

Be itknown thatwe, WILLIAM L. BECK and LAWRENCE W. TILFORD, citizens of the United States, residing at Kevil, in the county of Ballard, State of Kentucky, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Poultry-Coops; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others sln'lled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to certain novel and useful improvements in poultry coops or crates of the type usually employed for confining and shipping chickens.

In carrying out our invention it is our purpose to provide a coop which is so constructed as to permit of adequate ventilation, and at the same time such coop will possess manifest advantages from a sanitary standpoint, in thatit may be readily and thoroughly cleaned when desired.-

Another object of our invention is the provision of a coop of this character which is equipped'with a sliding door through the medium of which the chickens may be placed in and removed from the coop, said door having means for normally drawing and holding the same in closed position so that said door must be held open for the purpose of havingaccess to the inside ofthe coop, for the instant the holding action of the operator on the door is removed, the door will be drawn to its closed position, thereby preventing the escape of poultry from the 0007). such 'as would occur if the door were accidentally left open.

It is also our purpose to provide a coop of this character which will embody the desired features of simplicity, durability,efliciency and strength, which is so constructed that it may be shipped long distances and used for acomparatively long time without being broken .or otherwise damaged, and which embodying as it does but relatively few parts, may be manufactured and marketed at a relatively low cost. 1

With the above recited objects and others of a similar nature in view, our invention consists in the construction, combination and arrangement of partsset forth in and falling within the scope of the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 s a t p p an e o a op mb dy n 1.

Fig. at is a vertical cross sectional view taken on the line H of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a top plan view of a portion of the top of the coop and-showing the door in partially closed position. Fig. 6 is a cross sectional View on the line 66 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrow.

Before entering into detailed description of our improved coop, we will briefly state that it comprises a box-like skeleton frame having a solid bottom, while the ends are closed, by sections of wire netting. The

vertical sides and the top of the coop are .also formed of a single piece or section of wire netting,

such piece of netting being fastened at one of its longitudinal edges to the longitudinal bottom-bar at one side of the box-like frame, the netting being then carried upward over and across the top of the box-like frame and thencedown ward at the opposite side, the other longitudinal edge of the netting being fastened to the other longitudinal bottom bar of the frame so that both the longitudinal sides and the top of'the frame are covered by this wire netting. The netting is preferably formed of transverse and vertical strands .of relatively heavy wire, spaced a considerable distance apart, and a portion of the netting covering the top of the coop is provided with a relatively large centralopening through which access may be had to the coop. This opening is intended-to be closed by-a door which slides upon L-shaped angle bars, the door being normally drawn-to its closed position by means of suitable springs. The strands of thenetting overlie the edges of the door, drawings, so that the door cannot be accidentally elevated or shoved upward out of the rails or barsv on which it travels, as the top netting acts to confinethe dooron the .rails and "at the same time such. door may slide freely. The corners of the coop are provided with suitable corner shields of metal or other material to act as buffers in the well known manner.

R fe r n 1 9W to the accompanyin as-clearly shown in Fig. 1 of thedrawings in detail, the letter A indicates the box-like frame of the coop, this frame being preferably constructed of strips o wood. The solid bottom. of the coop is shown at 1, and may be made up of wooden boards or of sheet metal. The ends of the box-like frame are covered by sections of wire netting, shown at 2 2-, this netting being preferabl made of relatively heavy wire, composed of longitudinal and transverse strands spaced a relatively great distance apart. T he longitudinal sides and the top of the frame are covered with a piece of netting 13, this netting being fastened at one of its longitudinal edges to one of the longitudinal bottom bars 3 of the frame, being then. carried up over the adjacent longitudinal top bar at, thence across the top and down over the other top longitudinal bar 5 and fastened at its other end to the other longitudinal bottom bar 3, in the manner readily understood, so that the two vertical sides and the top of tl e crate are made up of a single section of wire netting. The ends of the frame are braced by intermediate vertical posts 6, while the sides are braced by similar intermediate vertical posts 7. The corner posts of the frame are indicated at 8. The top end bars of the frame are shown at 9 and extending longitudinally of the top of the frame are spaced metallic rails 10. These rails are in the form of angle irons, and specifically are in the nature of L-bars, and at the? ends the vertical flanges 11 of the bars are cut away to form shoulders 12 which fit against the top bars 9, the end sections of the horizontal flanges 13 of these bars 10 being fastened by rivets 1st to the under faces of the top end bars 9. These two bars 10 are suitably spaced apart and extend in parallelism longitudinally of the top of the coop beneath the netting covering the top and constitute runners for the sliding door D, the door sliding on the horizontal flanges 13 of the rails, and such door is confi ed against lateral displacement by the vertical flanges 11 of the rails. Bolted to the rails as at 15 and extending transversely between the same is a stop bar 16, the forward edge 17 of this bar projecting slightly inward of the transverse wire 18 which forms one transverse side of the central opening B of the coop, so that when the door is in its closed position it will abut at one end against this edge 17 of the bar 16, and when in such closed position the transverse end 19 of the door will lie beneath the transverse wire strand 20 which forms the other transverse side of the opening B. Likewise the longitudinal strands 21 and 22 overlie the longitudinal sides of the door as clearly shown in Fig. 1 so that the door cannot be pushed or elevated from the rails to such an extent as to entirely disconnect it from the coop and thus permit the escape of the chickens.

In order to draw the door normally to its closed position, we provide one or more relatively large powerful coil tension springs 23 pivotally connected to the underside of the door by a hook and eye as at 2%, and likewise detachably connected as at 25 by a hook and eye to the underside of one of the top end bars 9 of the frame A. The solid bottom of the coop may be reinforced by a suitable number of metallic strips such shown at 26, and the corners of the coop are further provided with metallic corner shields 27 of any suitable cha actor.

The numeral 28 indicates an approxi mately U-shaped reinforcing hanger wire, the ends of which are coiled as at 29 about and around the strand 20 at the top of the coop, the wire passing beneath and in contact with the rails 10. The purpose of this wire is to hold the top section B of the wire netting down in position over the rails so that such top section of netting will always perform. its function of constituting a top guiding member for he sliding door.

From the above description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings,

the construction and manner of employing our invention will be readily understood. When it is desired to place the chickens in the coop the door D is grasped and pulled open or to the right in Fig. 1, against the tension of the springs 23 so that such springs will be stretched as shown in Fig. 5. lVhen the chickens have been placed in the coop, or removed as the case may be, the operator releases the door and the springs will restore it to its normal closed position as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings.

It will be noted that we have provided an exceedingly simple, yet strong and durable coop, which possesses manifest advantages from the standpoint of cleanliness, capability of ventilation and. the like.

"While we have herein shown and described one particular embodiment of our inven tion, we wish it to be understood that we do not confine ourselves to all the precise de tails of construction herein set forth by way of illustration, as modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the appended claims.

What we claim is: A

1. A poultry coop comprising a skeleton box-like frame having a solid bottom and having the ends thereof covered with sections of wire netting, wire netting forming the longitudinal sides and the top of the coop, the netting of the top having a relatively large opening in the center thereof, parallel rails fastened at their ends to the top portion of the frame, a door sliding on said rails, such door being held from upward movement away from the rails by the wire netting constituting the top of the coop,

- door to its closed position, and a spring normally drawing the door to closed position against the stop bar.

2. In a poultry coop, a frame covered with netting, a pair of oppositely disposed L- shaped rails arranged beneath the netting of the top of said coop to extend longitudinally thereof in parallel relation, the said top netting being free from said rails and cut away adjacent the central portion thereof Copies of this patent may be obtained for to provide an opening between said rails, a door arranged to slide upon the horizontal portions of said rails, a stop between said rails for limiting the movement of said door in one direction, and a spring for normally holding said door engaged with said stop. 7 In testimony whereof, we afiix our signatures, in the presence of two Witnesses.

l/VILLIAM L. BECK. LAlVRENOE W. TILFORD. Witnesses:

MORGAN KUYKENDALL, 'Jnss HOOK.

flv'e cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). 6. 

